This will pass of course. As it always does.
Temporary instability due to lack of cogent energy policy IMHO and rising interest rates. Clinton administration just sitting on it's hands instead of instituting conservation policy months ago when we still had some time to fight back and swindlers in the Fed raising rates and hence the profits the Fed gets from making loans of money it prints. History always repeats. I mentioned to a friend, who trusts Clinton, the fact that his energy policy was to go beg the OPEC countries to lower ('stabilize') the price of a barrel. Got no reply. I can just see the OPEC economists thinking to themselves "Yah, all those Americans drive giant SUVs, Yah, maybe we should lower our standard of living for their sake." I live in LA and that SUV/Giant Speedboat/Gas Powered Desert Racer/Limosine/Giant Air Conditioned House thing is just a mindset. (It's dumb to try to buy happiness, when all you need are friends and nature.)
It's energy instability, you can see it in the massive shifts of money. Of course guys like Clinton's buddies know it. The money doesn't disappear, it just goes from one pocket to another.
Money out of chips and into network stocks and oil management software stocks. Apple just happened to announce at worst possible moment. Ironic. I drive very little now that I'm telecommuting, as are many people due to computers. As a matter of fact, long term oil price rise should convince many luddites that shopping and working via computer is not only cheaper but better for environment.
Apple still looks good as a consumer company if they don't screw up the OSX interface. That's a big maybe as those 'egos' get in the way. The OS was all they had going for them but they seem to have abandoned ease of use for glitz. Movieplayer, Sherlock and Aqua. I just helped my ex set up an iMac. It's just too complex for her. She just doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Especially connecting to the internet. Way too complex for your average luddite. So they better get it right.
Many of you know I'm a longtime Mac user, started learning on my 660AV, but logically this was a long time coming. Truth is the Cube ain't helping much. To hard nosed professional people like me it looks like form over function or maybe even desperation, meanwhile my main computer is now my $1100 homebuilt Athlon/98/NT. No crappy parts in the Athlon machine either. All quality. Compared to the G4 were I threw away the crappy WD HD and put in a fast IBM HD and the software modem which sucks but is still there. My Athlon is more stable than my Macs and faster at everything except video editing, I don't use my Mac much for photoshop anymore as most of the photoshop stuff I do is web based and hence small. My Athlon opens up Photoshop in half the time it takes my G4. Just way too many problems with the G4, from instability to the fact the reboot button is so tiny I have to struggle to find it under my desk. I'll upgrade my Athlon from 600Mhz to 1Ghz this year. I can upgrade to 900Mhz for $250 right now but I want that 1Ghz burner for less than $300. Can't even get close to doing that on my G4. The Athlon is just a big box with big buttons but it works. Register says AMD will drop prices again in October, and they have plenty of high Mhz chips. I repeat my earlier statement that comparing PPC chips to Intel chips is a mistake. AMD is now the chip maker to people who want bang for their buck and Transmeta's low energy chip is looking well positioned for notebooks. Intel is way, way weak, and that makes Apple's PPC chips look positively pathetic in comparison. Motorola and IBM have really screwed Apple, but why should they care?
I've had my Atlon 5 or 6 months now with only one blue screen, very few freezes. |
